


Your name is Cloud Strife.

by Anonymous



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen, Memory Loss, ff7 typical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27258040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Something clear in his fogged brain. His own name. It was a start, at least; a memory at the core of him that would be difficult to shake.
Kudos: 12
Collections: Anonymous





	Your name is Cloud Strife.

**Author's Note:**

> more "things from the dusty fanfic bin that i'm posting for archival reasons"

“ _I won’t forget.”_

“Zack...F...Fair. Fair. Zack”

Cloud mumbled the words out loud to himself as he walked, rolling them over and over again on his tongue. The sun had just begun to rise over the wasteland; the heat of the day was beginning to beat down on him. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since had eaten or drank anything. He had to have been wandering out here a while...what time was it again?

“No, I...Zack. Zack Fair. Name’s...Zack Fair.”

They had been running, he remembered that much. Him and Zack Fair. _SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair._ Something had...something had gone awry on their last mission. Mission? SOLDIER mission. First Class.

“Zack...Zack. First. Zack the SOLDIER First.”

The blade of his sword scraped one long line behind him in the dirt and rock as he walked. He felt the urge to pick it up and carry it, but his arms could barely manage. The sound of it made him remember something Cloud – no, that _Zack_ had said, something about wear? He would try carrying it on his back once he got closer to Midgar. He’d need it for the mission.

Was he on a mission?

No. He was coming back.

“Zack Fair. SOLDIER. First Class.” He wouldn’t forget it. He mumbled the name to himself as he walked. “Zack. My name is...Zack?”

_Your name is Cloud Strife._

“No, not...not Zack.”

He paused. The sword’s long trail came to an abrupt pause.

“My name is Cloud. Cloud Strife.”

Something clear in his fogged brain. His own name. It was a start, at least; a memory at the core of him that would be difficult to shake.

“Zack Fair. SOLDIER First Class.”

He was on a mission with SOLDIER. He had been with Zack Fair.  
“My name is Cloud Strife. SOLDIER. First class.”

His tongue was dry, but the words felt right to say. He was on the right track; he _knew_ it.

“SOLDIER. We...were in SOLDIER.”

“Hey, buddy, you can’t stick around here.”

_SOLDIERs,_ man. They tended to go out and get plastered on the weekend, then come crawling back to HQ on the midday trains on Sundays. The guy looked like he’d had a particularly rough go of it – his face and clothes were stained with filth, and what looked like half-washed streaks of dried blood in his hair and on his face.

Well...whatever. He just worked at the train station, man. SOLDIER was a whole different terrifying beast. He didn’t question it.

The SOLDIER looked up at him with a dazed look in his eyes.

“My name is Cloud. First Class SOLDIER.”

“Yeah. I figured, bud. Listen, just walk it off and go find your pals, all right?”

He blinked at him slowly, then nodded, his head slumping down against his chest.

“ _Cloud?!”_

Ah. The guy’s girlfriend showed up. Well, whatever. She could handle him from here.


End file.
